Tags: Anatomical Structure, Nerve.
The spinal root of accessory nerve (or part) is firm in texture and its fibers arise from the motor cells in the lateral part of the anterior column of the gray substance of the medulla spinalis as low as the fifth cervical nerve.Passing through the lateral funiculus of the medulla spinalis they emerge on its surface and unite to form a single trunk which ascends between the ligamentum denticulatum and the posterior roots of the spinal nerves; enters the skull through the foramen magnum and is then directed to the jugular foramen through which it passes lying in the same sheath of dura mater as the vagus but separated from it by a fold of the arachnoid.In the jugular foramen it receives one or two filaments from the cranial part of the nerve or else joins it for a short distance and then separates from it again.As its exit from the jugular foramen it runs backward in front of the internal jugular vein in 66.6 per cent.
